Preparing for Christmas

Yes, we are still around, and yes, I know that the title implies that it is not yet Christmas.  Well that is because I began this post back during the 3rd week of December. It seems that life keeps getting faster and faster and that there is less time to stop and reflect on what is happening. Hopefully, now that the holidays are over, things will start getting back to normal.  I have a whole bunch of things to post on, so I am going to break it up into smaller chunks and post them all (hopefully) over this next week.

So to start off, lets go back to the week of December 15th. The holiday rush was just starting up. Christmas presents had just started to arrive in the mail. My mom knit Sara Beth a Hello Kitty hat. I took Sara Beth and Hudson out to get some Christmas presents for Heather. Hudson just enjoyed coming along for the ride, but Sara Beth can now provide input into what I should select. Sometimes the suggestions were good, other times, not so much. I believe the phrase "No heather does not want that unicorn stuffed animal" were uttered a least once during the outing.

Hudson's skills at exploring always improve. At this point, he could pull himself up at our bathtub and turn on the hot water. He thought that was the funniest thing ever as all that water went down the drain. Since we didn't want him to get his hands burned while sticking them in the hot water we had two choices. Sara Beth was in favor of turning on the cold water too, decreasing the temperature but doubling the water that went down the drain. Heather and I opted for the boring parent answer and turned off the water and attempted to keep him away from the bathtub with limited success.

We did have time to setup the Christmas tree. Sara Beth and her friend were very helpful in putting up all the branches and had put on a good assortment of ornaments before I had gotten the lights on the tree.

Heather was curious to see whether Hudson could successfully eat a Hershey Kiss. Well, the answer is: sort of. He successfully got it in his mouth; unfortunately, it didn't all stay there for very long. I rushed to get the camera and snap this picture before we began to clean him, his clothes, the floor, the door and the bottom of the windows.

Hudson is definitely a boy. He will turn anything he finds into a car and will start making engine noises as he "drives" it around. Here you can see him knocking all the decorative items out of a basket and using it as a race car.

Ok, so that is it for part one of the massive update. I'm going to publish it now before it gets too delayed and begin working on the next part which, as I said, should come out within a week.